To troubleshoot a Wi-Fi® connection on a BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet, please try the following actions:

BlackBerry PlayBook Settings Issues:

On the status bar, tap the Wi-Fi indicator and verify that the switch is set to On.

If the BlackBerry PlayBook cannot connect to a saved network, see KB27735.

Verify that the time on the BlackBerry PlayBook is synchronized with the network time. If the times are different, it could prevent the BlackBerry PlayBook from connecting (for example, if connecting to the network requires a certificate be installed on the BlackBerry PlayBook and the certificate has an expiration date).

Verify that the options for the Wi-Fi network are correct. To find out what options to use, for a home network, refer to the information that came with the home wireless router; for an enterprise Wi-Fi network, contact the enterprise network administrator; for a public hotspot, refer to any information provided for the hotspot or contact an employee at the hotspot who might have details about how to connect.

If the Wi-Fi network was manually switched and does not work, try manually switching to another Wi-Fi network.

If using a hotspot that requires username and password or credit card information to provide Internet access, go to KB26582 and see Cause 1.

Incorrect Network Login Issues:

Error message Unable to acquire an IP address. This may be due to an invalid password. will appear when the network password is wrong on a WEP network. The line WPA:4-Way Handshake failed will appear in the BlackBerry PlayBook Wi-Fi logs to confirm that the password was incorrect. More information about the Wi-Fi logs can be found in the Additional Information section.

Error message Failed to connect to the network. Please check your password and try again. will appear when the network password is wrong on a WPA network. The line WPA:4-Way Handshake failed will appear in the BlackBerry PlayBook Wi-Fi logs to confirm that the password was incorrect. More information about the Wi-Fi logs can be found in the Additional Information section.

Error message Failed to connect to the network. Will appear when the username or password is incorrect on a network using WPA Enterprise or WPA2 Enterprise. The line EAP authentication started will be followed two lines later by Disconnect event – remove keys to confirm that the login information was incorrect. More information about the Wi-Fi logs can be found in the Additional Information section.

Router-based issues:

The connection might have timed out. Try connecting again.

The minimum Wi-Fi password length allowed on the BlackBerry PlayBook is 8 characters. Anything number less than 8 will prevent the connect button from being active.

The BlackBerry PlayBook might be too far away from the wireless access point or wireless router to connect. Move the BlackBerry PlayBook closer and try connecting again.

Verify that the BlackBerry PlayBook is in a Wi-Fi coverage area. If connecting to a home network, see if other wireless devices are able to connect. If connecting to an enterprise Wi-Fi network or a hotspot, contact the enterprise network administrator or an employee at the hotspot.

If the Wi-Fi network doesn't appear in the list of available networks, the network might be hidden. If the network name is known, try connecting to it manually

When using the Push Button Setup method, verify that the access point uses Wi-Fi Protected Setup™, and that it has been set to send its profile. Verify that another device is not also attempting to connect at the same time, and that not more than one access point within range is in this mode. For more information, see the information that came with the wireless router.

If any kind of MAC filtering/whitelisting is enabled on the Wi-Fi network, ensure that PlayBook MAC address has been added to the whitelist. MAC address can be obtained from: Options -> About -> Network Information.

The wireless router may need to be reset. Refer to the user manual for the wireless router. If connecting to an enterprise Wi-Fi network or a hotspot, contact the enterprise network administrator or an employee at the hotspot. NOTE: Please use this step as a last resort as it will affect all devices connected to the Wi-Fi network.

Encryption-based issues:

If using PEAP, EAP-TLS, EAP-FAST, or EAP-TTLS to connect to a Wi-Fi network, verify that the root certificate have been installed for the certificate authority server that created the certificate for the authentication server. The certificate must be transferred to the BlackBerry PlayBook before it can connect to the network. For more information, contact the network administrator.

If using EAP-TLS to connect to a Wi-Fi network, verify that the authentication certificate has been added to the BlackBerry PlayBook. The certificate must be transferred to the BlackBerry PlayBook before it can connect to the network. For more information, contact the network administrator.

Please see the Additional Information section for more advanced troubleshooting steps.

If problems occur when connecting the BlackBerry PlayBook to a Wi-Fi network for the first time, there are some details that can be accessed on the BlackBerry PlayBook which will help BlackBerry Technical Support diagnose the issue. Additionally, typical networking tools to troubleshoot most forms of network connectivity issues are also available. These tools and their locations will be expanded upon below.

Accessing the toolsDuring the initial setup if there is a problem connecting to a Wi-Fi network, click the Settings icon in the bottom left of the screen to access the diagnostic tools.

Once in this menu, click the drop-down list on the right half of the screen.

After initial setup these options can be accessed using the following steps:

Click the Settings icon in the top right corner of the home screen.

Select Wi-Fi from the navigational menu that appears on the left pane.

In the bottom left corner of the right pane select the Wi-Fi signal icon with a question mark on it.

Note: A longer list of tools will be displayed in this drop-down list after the initial set up.

All of these tools are explained in more detail below.

Wi-Fi Troubleshooting Tools

Wi-Fi Information - This tool includes detailed information about a Wi-Fi connection such as SSID, Channel, etc. If there is a failure related to associating with a Wi-Fi hotspot it will be shown in the Failure Reason section of this tool.

Note: The Failure Reason field is only available if this drop down option is accessed outside of the initial setup. For issues during the initial setup refer to the Logs tool.

Logs - This tool provides the ability to see any logging related to associating with a Wi-Fi connection. Touching one of the lines will display the entire error message. This information can help a system administrator determine cause of failure when attempting to connect a BlackBerry PlayBook to a corporate network. It can also help any Wi-Fi service provider determine cause of failure from a home network or a public hotspot.

Network Troubleshooting Tools

Internet Connection - This is not a tool that can be used to perform any action or review, but provides information related to the network connection including the IP address assigned to the BlackBerry PlayBook, subnet, gateway and DNS servers.

Ping - In the initial setup this tool will allow the BlackBerry PlayBook to ping a host or IP address to determine response time. When this tool is accessed from the Settings > Wi-Fi option, additional pre-configured Ping options are displayed such as Ping Type which provides a drop-down list of options namely IP Address or Name (a specific address or IP), Wi-Fi Gateway, (the network gateway), or Self (the BlackBerry PlayBook IP address).

The message ping:sendto:No route to host will appear when not connected to Wi-Fi or when the BlackBerry PlayBook is unable to connect to a site.

The message ping:Cannot resolve will appear when not connected to Wi-Fi or when the BlackBerry PlayBook is unable to resolve IP addresses. When this message appears, use the DNS Lookup tool to confirm the issue.

Traceroute - Enter a destination IP address or domain name address to determine the number of router hops a request would take to reach the destination address.

Use this tool to determine if the connection to a specific site drops because of lack of connectivity or because a section of the network path drops the information.

DNS Lookup - In order to use this tool, type in the Primary or Secondary DNS address in the Server field. After doing this, enter any domain name in the 'Host' field and then click Send to confirm that the BlackBerry PlayBook can resolve the domain name to an IP address.

If the BlackBerry PlayBook is unable to resolve an IP address, the message connection timed out will appear. This means that the BlackBerry PlayBook did not get the correct IP address of the DNS server from the router. Verify if other devices that have connected to the same router in the past few minutes have the same issue. Reboot the router. Verify that the router's DNS settings are correct.

To verify router settings, locate the router's IP address on a Windows-based computer using IPConfig (IFConfig for a MAC). Steps on using IPConfig can be found in KB27560. When the IPConfig/IFConfig is ran, the Gateway address will be the IP address of the router. Browse to this IP address and log in using the credentials for the router. The default credentials will be listed on a label on the router itself or on the router manufacturer's website.

Note: Wi-Fi® connections are not supported to any Wi-Fi Alliance Draft11n certified access point that is set in 802.11n-only mode with TKIP or WEP advertised. Please see KB26522.